Hitting the Books
by foxshadow
Summary: One-Shot . Caution: Some OOCness ahead . Exams are on and Kagome encounters a small problem with a certain hanyou...


AN: My first one-shot, don't hurt me! cringes in fear  
  
Oh yeah, I guess I have to say that disclaimer thingy. Yeah, that whole thing about how I don't own Inuyasha. You know. That thing.  
  
Ah, and I'm not sure how school works over in Japan, so whatever happens in this little fic is based off of my sister's school...  
  
By the way, this is dedicated to K Roy, or CI7, or Pipkin, or CaptainInuyasha777, or whatever you wish to call her. Thank you for your encouragement and friendship! Love ya!

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Hitting the Books  
  
Chapter One  
  
(The only chapter, seeing as it's a one-shot.)   
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"Damnit Inuyasha, SIT!" A fuming, red-faced, raven-haired girl stood above what seemed to be a large crater in the ground, glaring down at its depths. "I have finals tomorrow, and if I don't go back, I have to repeat the whole grade over again! I don't want to hear any of your lame-ass excuses," she added, storming off to the direction of the deserted well.  
  
A minute later an agitated dog-demon peered over the top of the gap in the ground's surface, muttering incoherent swear words. Struggling out of the wide cavity, he bounded after the wrathful girl.  
  
"Why do you have to go back every single fucking time there's a stupid 'test!' WHAT THE HELL IS A TEST ANYWAY?! Kagome! Listen to me, you damn bitch!" He grabbed the back of her shirt, then hastily let go, wishing he could rewind and erase the last sentence that had escaped his lips.  
  
"What did you call me, Inuyasha?" Kagome's voice was deadly quiet. Inuyasha gulped, but kept his scowl in place. "SIT, YOU ARROGANT MORON!" With that final  
  
sentiment, she huffed and strode angrily towards the well, only taking a moment to glower at the hanyou-shaped hole in the once-solid ground.  
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Climbing out of the well, a very irritated Kagome struggled to pull her overstuffed bag out after her. Yanking it free of the well's clutches, she strode out of the well-house, cursing loudly and kicking at any innocent, inanimate objects in her way. Bursting through the front door, she stomped by her mother, grandfather, and brother, grunting in response to their enthusiastic hello's.  
  
Kagome trudged up the stairs and into her room, slamming her door behind her, grumbling all the while. A moment later, a loud and angry feminine scream filled the house, the sound emitting from Kagome's room.  
  
Souta and Kagome's mother exchanged glances. "Fight with Inuyasha," they said in monotonous unison, before going about their business.  
  
Only Grandpa remained confused. "Who came in the door? Was that Kagome? Who screamed? Why won't anyone tell me anything?"  
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"Stupid Inuyasha. He's such a jerk!" To emphasize her last remark, Kagome threw her shoe against the wall, leaving a very distinct imprint behind. Oh shit!, she screamed in her mind. Kagome ran over and hastily began to attempt to rub out the shoe print, only managing to smudge it more. She licked her shirt and rubbed the spot even harder in a futile attempt to rid her wall of the mark. Mom is going to kill me!  
  
"Kagome?"  
  
Ah, speak of the devil.  
  
Her mother's voice came from the other side of the door. She had come up to speak with her daughter about her apparent fight. Their conversation went as follows:  
  
"Kagome, are you okay?"  
  
"Mmph."  
  
"Kagome, answer, please. I'm only trying to help."  
  
"Pfgh."  
  
"Kagome, I know you and Inuyasha had a fight. Would you like to talk about it?"  
  
"Urgh."  
  
"Kagome, please!"  
  
"Grmbph."  
  
"Kagome!"  
  
"Brumph."  
  
"Fine! Come talk to me later, then." Kagome snorted once more, before glaring at the mark on her wall and flopping on her bed. "Could this day get any worse?" she groaned, covering her face with her hands.  
  
Why, yes, it could.  
  
"Argh! I have to study! Finals are tomorrow!" She leapt out of bed and hurried to her desk, haphazardly pulling out papers and books. "My life officially sucks."  
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"Man, Inuyasha, she looked pissed!" Sango glanced over the top of Hiraikotsu. Setting her rag down, she abandoned her polishing and lazily strode over to Inuyasha. "Hope you didn't blow it this time."  
  
"She'll come back. She always does."  
  
"Not necessarily!" Miroku looked up from his and Shippou's dice game. "She did look extremely angry."  
  
"Shut it monk!" Inuyasha snarled, glaring at him. "She'll be back by tomorrow morning, I know it."  
  
Sango shook her head. "Right, Inuyasha. Right."  
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"I'm going to fail. I'm going to fail. I'm going to fail," Kagome chanted, rubbing her eyes and squinting at the book before her. It was 12:01 a.m., and Kagome, not being of the nocturnal sort, was having major doubts about her ability of passing the tests ahead of her. Her mind kept drifting back to Inuyasha, which was not helping her attempt to memorize eleven chapters worth of knowledge for her upcoming math test. Staring at the clock, she watched the hands slowly tick closer and closer to the start of school. For every tick of the clock, Kagome saw Inuyasha.  
  
Tick. Inuyasha laughing.  
Tick. Inuyasha scowling.  
Tick. Inuyasha drawing Tetsuaiga.  
Tick. Inuyasha plummeting to the ground.  
  
12:02.  
  
Tick. Inuyasha chasing Miroku.  
Tick. Inuyasha grinning.  
Tick. Inuyasha twitching.  
Tick. Inuyasha sleeping.  
Tick. Inuyasha walking.  
  
12:03.  
  
Tick. Inuyasha chasing Shippou.  
Tick. Inuyasha eating ramen.  
Tick. Inuyasha pestering Sango.  
Tick. Inuyasha riding on Kagome's bike.  
  
12:04.  
  
Tick. Inuyasha fighting Sesshomaru.  
Tick. Inuyasha fighting Kouga.  
Tick. Inuyasha fighting a Naraku puppet.  
Tick. Inuyasha fighting Kagura.  
Tick. Inuyasha fighting Kagome's return home.  
  
The last one stuck in her mind. Inuyasha fighting her return home.  
  
Inuyasha fighting her return home.  
  
Tick.  
  
Tick.  
  
Tick.  
  
Tick. Inuyasha. Tick. 5x=ab. Tick. Inuyasha yelling at her. Tick 6a9b-87cd. Tick. Inuyasha grabbing her shirt. Tick. x=-b-b2-4ac/2a. Tick. Inuyasha. Inuyasha.  
  
Inuyasha.  
  
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz......  
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"Kagome, dear, wake up. School starts in an hour...is that a shoe print on your wall?"  
  
A voice floated in through Kagome's dream. It was a nice dream, albeit strange. She and Inuyasha were sitting side-by-side on a ticking clock, reading a math book and watching the shoe-print on her wall grow bigger.  
  
"Mmmmmm....." Kagome scrunched her eyes tighter, trying to hang onto the fleeing dream. Someone was shaking her. Wincing as she noticed a sudden pain in her neck and back, she opened her eyes.  
  
When one is expecting to find themselves in their bed, opening their eyes to see their pillow, waking up to the sight of a couple hundred math problems and a chewed on pencil is never good.  
  
"What the....?" Kagome said, suddenly awake. Lifting her face from her math book, she found that she had fallen asleep at her desk. Groaning, she stretched and examined the funny lines on her face in her mirror.  
  
"You'd better get ready for school, hun. Your final exams are today! We'll examine this mark after you get home!" Her mother gave her a cheery smile and scooted out the door.  
  
Exams. "DAMN!"  
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"Alright, it's tomorrow morning Inuyasha! Where is she?" Sango folded her arms across her chest and looked expectantly at Inuyasha.  
  
"Shut. Up. Sango." he replied through clenched teeth.  
  
"Where's Kagome!? You made her leave! Go get her!" Shippou bit down hard on Inuyasha's foot.  
  
"OW! Damn you, you little brat!" He shook his foot, but Shippou held firm. "FINE! I'll go and get her! And wipe that smirk off your face, monk, or I'll do it for you!"  
  
Shippou released his foot as Miroku hid his grin behind his hand. Stopping only to make a rude gesture in his companions' general area, Inuyasha marched off towards the well.  
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"I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail." Kagome rocked back and forth in her seat, tapping her pencil nervously against the desk.  
  
"Relax, Kag! It won't be so bad, you'll see!" Her friend Eri patted her shoulder and smiled. Kagome attempted to smile back.  
  
"Alright, you may begin." Kagome's teacher's words hit her in the face like a sack of potatoes. Taking a deep breath, Kagome started on the first problem.  
  
"If a=7 and b=5, then according to the equation 89a7b-36ab962c, what does c equal?"  
  
Oh yeah, she was doomed.  
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"No, I'm sorry Inuyasha, she's at school. If you'd like, you can wait until she gets back!" Kagome's mother stood in the front doorway, smiling at an irritated Inuyasha.  
  
"Nah. I'll go and get her myself," he declared, before bounding away, waving to Kagome's mother. A little ways away from the shrine, Inuyasha stopped. "Hmm, now if I were a 'ska-ool', where would I be? Aha! Hey, you!" Inuyasha pointed a clawed finger at a passerby.  
  
"HERE, TAKE MY WALLET! JUST GET AWAY FROM ME!" The pedestrian fled in terror.  
  
"Well, that wasn't nice...oh! The ears, right, gotta fix that." Snatching the baseball cap off the head of a nearby boy, he leapt towards a building.  
  
Walking inside, he found a desk labeled "Information." Perfect! They must know where Kagome is! "Uh, hey, lady." He tapped the desk to get the woman, who apparently was examining her new manicure, to pay atention.  
  
"Oh! What can I do for ya?" She looked expectantly at hm.  
  
"Do you know where Kagome Higurashi is?"  
  
"Hun, do I look like an idiot? Get out before I call ecurity! Stupid practical jokers..." she trailed off while returning to examining her nails. Inuyasha snarled at her, resisting the urge to rip every one of her nails off, and strode out of the store.  
  
After wandering the streets aimlessly for awhile, Inuyasha looked at a sign on a building he passed. "S-cha-oool? What a weird nam-KAGOME!" And there she was, sitting in a window, looking bored out of her skull, doodling on a piece of paper. Inuyasha slipped into the bushes and onto a tree outside her window. "KAGOME!" Waving his arms, he grinned and shouted her name once more.  
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Kagome gave up. Without even so much as a glance at the econd problem, she began to randomly fill in bubbles n her bubble-in answer sheet. First she tried to spell out Inuyasha's name, but it was too long. So she then tried to bubble in a heart shape, but that was too boring. So here she was, filling in bubbles to make two doggy-ear shapes, Inuyasha's best qualities according to Kagome.  
  
"Kagome!" She shot her head up. Someone was calling her name? Looking out the window, she saw Inuyasha sitting on a tree branch. "Oh, it's only Inuyasha," she whispered, before busying herself with her answer sheet. "INUYASHA!"  
  
"Ahem." Her teacher walked over to her desk, as her  
  
fellow classmates stared.  
  
"Heh, sorry sir! Uh, I just...er...was thinking out loud. Loudly. Sorry." She blushed and smiled at her teacher.  
  
"Alright, pass in your papers. You are dismissed to take your next exam. Good luck." Students shuffled out of the room, while Kagome motioned hurriedly for Inuyasha to stay put.  
  
Rushing down the halls, she ran outside, colliding with Inuyasha himself. Pulling the boy into the bushes with her, she hissed, "What the hell are you doing here?"  
  
"Coming to get you! You were taking way too long!"  
  
"It was only a day! Not even a day! I have to finish my tests! Looking at her watch, she groaned. "Look, you stay RIGHT HERE. Understand? I'll be back out as soon as school ends, alright? Right here, remember! You'd better thank me for not killing you!" She shook her head and hurried back inside school, leaving behind a very confused Inuyasha.  
  
Ten minutes passed, and Inuyasha was growing very impatient. Impatient and bored. "She won't mind if I leave this spot, exactly!" He moseyed out of the bushes, and looked curiously at the school building. "I wonder what's so great in there..." He walked up to the doors and went inside.  
  
Eyes glued to the many posters and such on the walls, he didn't notice the woman waking towards him. "Young man! Young man, what are you doing out of class?"  
  
"Huh?" He eyed the stout woman.  
  
"You heard me, what are you doing roaming the halls?" Her eyes hardened.  
  
"I...uh...am...a visitor?" He grinned nervously.  
  
" Oh! Why didn't you say so? Why are you here?" the lady brightened. Inuyasha's mind raced, trying to come up with an answer.  
  
"Uh, I'm staying with Kagome Higurashi. I'm a friend, and I came to visit her...at school?" He looked at his feet.  
  
"Oh, I see!" The woman gave him a wink. "Just 'friends' are we? Well, here, let me give you a visitor's pass." She whipped out a pad of paper from her pocket. "If you'll go to the office, straight down and to your left, they can tell you where Kagome is. If she's taking an exam," she saw Inuyasha's nods, "then you may sit in the office until the class is over. After this exam, they're allowed out. They take all their finals today, and get out of class as soon as they finish."  
  
She motioned for Inuyasha to follow her. "Now you sit here," she pointed to a hard plastic bench when they reached the office, "and I'll tell you when she's done." After seeing Inuyasha's nod, the woman smiled and hurried out of the office. Inuyasha sighed and settled against the wall.  
  
"Wow, I'm bored already."  
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Kagome drummed her fingers on her desktop, throwing nervous glances every two minutes out the window. The wall blocked her view of the bush she hoped Inuyasha was still occupying.  
  
If he's not there when I get back... Kagome shook her head slightly, looking down at her answer sheet. This exam was her final out of four, and for each and every answer sheet, she doodled something that related to Inuyasha. This time, instead of dog ears, she had simply written her initials alongside Inuyasha's single 'I'.  
  
"I guess it wouldn't hurt me to retake the entire grade again, after all, I was barely here anyway," she muttered to herself, tracing the patterns someone had carved in her desk.  
  
"And....time is up." Her teacher stood at the front of the room, arms folded over chest, grinning at the sea of groaning students. "You are free to go, have fun, see you all tomorrow!"  
  
All the students leapt up and out of their seats to deposit their papers on the teacher's desk, but none were faster than Kagome. Like a hound picking up the scent of a fleeing rabbit, she sprinted out of the room, skidding down the halls and crashing into her locker. Just as she was about to race back down to Inuyasha's bush, she heard an announcement that almost made her heart stop.  
  
Over the loudspeaker came a crackling voice. "Kagome Higurashi, you have a visitor in the main office. Kagome Higurashi, there is a visitor in the main office." Dread filled Kagome as she made her way down to the office. She knew who her visitor was, even before she entered to room. On the uncomfortable plastic bench lay drowsy Inuyasha. Lazily raising his hand, he gave her a sort of half-wave, half-salute.  
  
"Surprise?" he said, before straightening up. Kagome grabbed his wrist and dragged him mercilessly through hordes of student and off the school premises.  
  
"What did I tell you?" She was quiet. Uncharacteristically quiet. Not waiting for a reply, she hissed in a harsh whisper, "NOT TO LEAVE THE BUSH!" Before Inuyasha had time to react, she grabbed his ear and dragged him back towards her house.  
  
When they entered the Higurashi household, Kagome marched upstairs, with a scowling Inuyasha in tow. Slamming her door, she released her iron grip on Inuyasha's ear, allowing him to move quickly away from the heated girl and massage his ear. "Do you have any idea how much trouble we would be in if someone found out about you?"  
  
"You were taking too long!" He glared at her.  
  
"What are you talking about?! I've been gone way longer than a DAY!" Kagome fumed, eyes blazing. This was just not her day.  
  
"Yeah well...Sango, Miroku, and the brat wanted you to come back." Inuyasha dropped his eyes to the floor and scuffed his foot on the rug. "So did I...."  
  
Kagome stopped short. Did he just say he had missed her?  
  
"I felt bad about fighting and stuff..." Inuyasha mumbled, incredibly embarrassed and infuriated with himself that he was admitting this to Kagome.  
  
Kagome smiled at the obviously flustered Inuyasha. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just, this is my home too...I need to get back sometimes. Plus today I had exams and all."  
  
She walked over to Inuyasha and enveloped him in a hug. "Thanks for missing me, though." She smiled into his shoulder, eyes closed. Inuyasha returned the hug, breathing in Kagome's scent. After what seemed like an eternity wrapped in each other's comforting embrace, they broke apart. An awkward silence filled the air, before Inuyasha asked a question that had been burdening him since he had been forcefully dragged into Kagome's room.   
  
"Is that a shoe-print on your wall....?"  
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A few weeks after the exam incident, Kagome stood in the bottom of the well, Inuyasha peering over. "Well? Aren't you going to help me up?" After Inuyasha pulled her from the well, she danced about wildly, before hugging Inuyasha once more. "You'll never guess what happened!" she squealed, eyes bright.  
  
"Uh.....you won a lifetime supply of ramen?"  
  
"You're kidding, right? No, I PASSED MY EXAMS!!" she gave a loud shout of joy and hopped about. "I totally guessed too! And I got one of the top scores! Can you believe it?" She stopped and grinned at Inuyasha.  
  
"Er.....no?" Since he had no idea what she was babbling about, he felt it best just to humor her.  
  
"What, so you're saying you didn't think I could do it?" She gave him a playful shove, before racing off to tell Sango.  
  
Inuyasha shook his head, slightly puzzled, and yet amused, over Kagome. "What an idiot. What a totally lovable idiot." Shaking his head once again, he bounded after her, soon catching up.  
  
"So this means no more running back to take tests, right?" He looked at her hopefully.  
  
"What are you talking about?" She stopped suddenly, causing Inuyasha to crash into a series of unsuspecting bushes to avoid hitting her. "This means I have a whole new year to go back for even more tests!" She grinned and raced on, leaving behind a shocked Inuyasha.  
  
"WHAT?!"

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AN: And so ends my first one-shot, though the ending seemed shaky to me. Ah well, as long as you guys liked it!  
  
Blargh, I've got final exams to study for now, although mine aren't all on the same day, like Kagome's. (Thank God! ;) I had to make hers all on one day, so it wouldn't drag on....  
  
Reviews and flames are welcome, but only the former is appreciated!  
  
Fox

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Hey guys...Pink Arrow Kagome here. Fanfiction.net suddenly doesn't like a whole bunch of symbols that Fox uses in her stories and page breaks, such as astrics and smilies and such. So as a last resort, I've substitued the dotted line. I hope it doesn't post too cramped and that it's not too confusing. Thanks for understanding!!

Pink Arrow Kagome


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